Shift key mysteriously constantly being active

[Steve Jackson]

I am using a Dell Latitude D620 laptop with XP Pro. Randomly throughout the
day the shift key just locks up even though it
is not even being pressed down all the time. I am unable to release the
shift key from this state even though it is not pressed
down. This affects all applications that uses the shift key - Excel tries to
select a block of cells instead of a single cell and in
Explorer when you press on 1 file/folder, it selects every thing from the
1st file/folder in the list.

The laptop is brand new and is completely clean. There are no spillages so I
can't see that its a hardware issue, well not yet anyway

What would cause this and is there a quick way to release it?

 

[Zilbandy]

The laptop is brand new and is completely clean.

What did Dell say about it when you called them?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I am using a Dell Latitude D620 laptop with XP Pro. Randomly throughout the
day the shift key just locks up even though it
is not even being pressed down all the time. I am unable to release the
shift key from this state even though it is not pressed
down. This affects all applications that uses the shift key - Excel tries
to
select a block of cells instead of a single cell and in
Explorer when you press on 1 file/folder, it selects every thing from the
1st file/folder in the list.

The laptop is brand new and is completely clean. There are no spillages so
I
can't see that its a hardware issue, well not yet anyway

What would cause this and is there a quick way to release it?

Tapping all six prefix keys (left shift/ctrl/alt right shift/ctrl/alt)
one after the other will usually fix this problem.

 

[Steve Jackson]

I haven't called Dell, though I forgot to add that I'm also using a docking
station with a Dell PS2 keyboard. I've made a few more invetigations and
found the following:

Tapping the shift/ctrl/tab keys seems to sort it out but its anoying that it
happens in the first place. Once I tried tapping these keys but noting seem
to break it from a shift active state.
I replaced the keyboard with a USB keyboard. XP recognised it immediately
and there been no problems since this morning. Touch wood that may have
sorted it.

I'm a little confused why it was happening though as there does not seem to
be a route cause. The PS2 keyboard seemed fine and all the connection seemed
to be ok. Could this be a driver issue as the PS2 keyboard would use the
default keyboard driver while the USB keyboard would use another. It's all
very strange.......

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I cannot tell you why this happens but I suspect that you
are unable to break out of it because you misread my reply.
I recommended that you tap

left shift/ctrl/alt right shift/ctrl/alt, which you translated into
shift/ctrl/tab

There are some big differences there!

 

[Kelly]

Awesome info!

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm